Some fluids like water and air, used in day-to-day life, can be contaminated with micro-organisms. The presence of micro-organisms in fluids, for example, in water used for drinking, may have a detrimental effect on the health of the consumer. Hence, the micro-organisms present in fluids should be inactivated before the fluids are used for consumption.
One way of purifying fluids is by using ultra violet (UV) light emitted by an UV light emitter. UV light, in the range of 260-to-280 nm, is absorbed by the DNA, RNA and protein in micro-organisms, for example bacteria and virus, causing genetic damage and inactivation.
There exist systems which use UV light for the purification of fluids. However, the known systems for purification of fluids using the UV light require a good transmittance of the fluids. Transmittance, in terms of fluid treatment with UV light, is the ability of the UV light to travel through a fluid, or more specifically, the fraction of a given amount of the UV light that can be measured through the fluid at a given point. Currently, commercially available UV fluid purification systems require that at least 75% of transmitted UV light reaches a distance of 1 cm from the UV light emitters. As the turbidity of the fluids increases, their transmittance decreases. Low transmittance of the fluids decreases the amount of exposure of the micro-organisms to UV light, thereby, reducing the effectiveness of the known systems in inactivating these micro-organisms.
What is needed is a system for the purification of fluids that can work efficiently even for a fluid with a low transmittance.